Robinson asked the 33-year-old South African comedian if it was fair of her to call him a feminist. Noah responded that indeed it was, crediting his mother and other female authority figures with building a feminist foundation for him when he was young.

“Without a doubt, that’s because of my mom. My aunt, grandmother. Most of my teachers were female in school. I grew up in a world where authority was female,” said Noah.

However, he didn’t call himself a feminist until later in life ― not because he didn’t believe in political, economic and social equality for all genders, but because he had negative associations with the term feminist.

“I never thought to call myself a feminist because of branding,” said Noah. “I had this skewed idea of feminist: I thought it meant being a woman who hates men. When I read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what my mom taught me. This is simple. I don’t understand why everybody is not this.’”

The lesson here? When in doubt, pick up a book ― specifically one written by Adichie.